Get Woodworking Week: 2015

Tomorrow begins Get Woodworking Week, a little project started a few years ago by my friend Tom Iovino. The purpose is to inspire people to get up off their couches and get into the shop and explore the craft of woodworking. And I can’t think of a better way to perpetuate the craft than to get kids involved.

Being out on the Woodworking Show circuit at this time of year has me thinking about the shows I’ve done in years past and all the people who’ve seen, and participated in, my hand-cut dovetail demos. Sure, each year I’d get a handful of adults who had never cut them before to brave the crowd and get behind the bench for some one-on-one instruction, but the majority of the time I had kids; kids of all sizes and ages. And to me, that’s the most fun a person could have at a show.

We’re in Detroit this weekend with the show and, while I’m not specifically doing hand-cut dovetail demos, I still think it’s a great place to take your kids or grandkids to get them interested in woodworking. There’s different demos by the score showing everything from beginner skills and projects to carving and scroll- and band saw trinkets. So, in the spirit of Get Woodworking Week (and in honor of all the future woodworkers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at the shows over the years), bring your kids out to the show this weekend (or in any of the remaining four cities in which the shows will be visiting over the next month or so) and I’ll happily help set them on the woodworking path with some personal dovetail instruction (and no, Tom, that doesn’t include you even though you are a big kid).